SpectroMagic Parade Photos
SpectroMagic! is an evening light parade that was presented nightly at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. It debuted in 1991 as part of the 20th anniversary celebrations, replacing the Main Street Electrical Parade. In this SpectroMagic tribute, we’ll share some of my favorite photos of the parade, which is our sentimental favorite of Disney nighttime parades.
After a long run, and second run, SpectroMagic went on temporary hiatus during the “Summer Nightastic!” celebration so the Main Street Electrical Parade could return for the summer. Following that summer, Walt Disney World kept the Main Street Electrical Parade around due to “popular demand.”
Personally, and this is just our anecdotal observations, but there was no such demand. SpectroMagic was the better and more beloved parade by Walt Disney World fans. While Disneyland fans loved Main Street Electrical Parade, a generation of WDW fans grew up with the waltz-y music, SpectroMickey, and Jiminy Cricket’s narration.
Nevertheless, It was still fully expected that SpectroMagic! would return at some point in the future. Unfortunately, that proved not to be true, as the parade floats were stored outside during Main Street Electrical Parade’s run, and as a result of being exposed to the elements, they had to be destroyed.
The SpectroMagic! music is one of the big draws of the parade (I love its music), along with Jiminy Cricket’s classic introduction: “Welcome to the splendor, the spectacle, the sparkling sensation; where the romance, the comedy and thrill of Disney fantasies come to electric life. And now the Magic Kingdom proudly presents, in a million points of musical light, the magical world of Disney in SpectroMagic!”
Here is a gallery of some of our favorite SpectroMagic! photos:
While SpectroMagic will never return to Walt Disney World, fans like us hold out hope that a replacement, Perhaps “SpectroMagic 50” will debut for Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary in 2021. If the exemplary Dreamlights at Tokyo Disneyland is any indication, Disney can still do amazing work with night parades, and we hope Walt Disney World has not seen the last of SpectroMickey and friends.
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Your Thoughts
Do you agree or disagree with our opinion of SpectroMagic? Did you prefer it or Main Street Electrical Parade? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
who has 1990s photos of spectromagic?
anyone have photos of th 1990s versions of the spectromen robots who had fiberoptic hair animated light up face masks with moving mouths and eyes and eyelids i know 1991 version of them had antenna on top of their fiberoptic hair
We agree on so much: Illuminations is the best nighttime show, Caribbean Beach is my favorite resort and Spectro was the best parade ever. I worked as a seasonal performer at MK during college and performed that parade many times. I could almost hear the wonderful music as I looked at your pictures.
After reading your post about the Main Street Electrical Parade, I had to check out your Spectro Magic Photos. Thank you for taking the time to photograph these things. I really enjoy them and think you’re a great photographer. The last time I got to see Spectro Magic was in 2006 with my then 11 year old son. I never would have guessed that it was for the last time. What a wonderful parade. Thanks for the memories.
SpectroMagic was the best. This is a huge Disney mistake retiring it. SpectroMagic was special. The Main Street Electrical parade is several levels down. We don’t even watch it.
I was on the Keys to the Kingdom tour at MK on June 9, and part of it took us backstage to where floats are stored.
I’m optimistically happy to report that the Spectro floats are all still back there! They haven’t been dismantled, repurposed, or sent to some enormous unknown Disney warehouse…at least not yet!
Our tour guide said that as far as he knows, Spectro is still on permanent hiatus. BUT he also said that keeping the floats at MK could mean that Disney has a trick or two up its sleeve, and we may see Spectro roll again one day.
Here’s hoping!
Unfortunately, I’ve heard through the grapevine that it was recently announced that Spectromagic is gone forever. 🙁
Beautiful Photos!!! Thank you for sharing them with us. I really miss Spectromagic. It’s so true what Dan said “It tugs on your heart strings” The music just stays with you. Wonderful memories.
I have come to a conclusion that if I want to relive my memories, I must come to see all of your photos. I enjoy absolutely all of them. You bring the memories back. I may still try to take my own photos with my little Kodak camera, but I will always come here when at home to see what you have posted for memories. Thank you so much.
Wow, thanks for the kind words!
Spectromagic has long been a favorite of ours. The Main Street Electrical Parade is a great parade and a ton of fun, and it may be superior in execution. But for me, Spectromagic has no peer in the way it tugs on your heart strings. I’m glad we will see it again someday. In the meantime, the MSEP is a must-see!
Totally agree with you. I can’t wait to have SpectroMagic back!
MSEP was the first evening parade I saw (at Disneyland Paris) and, from a nostalgia point of view, I was excited to see it again when I visited Orlando last month.
Except, then I found myself missing Spectromagic! Fantillusion, at Disneyland Paris, is similar to Spectromagic so I guess I’ll have to get my fix there instead.
While I would love to see the Electric Parade just to see something different, I do love SpectroMagic and it never fails to impress. I love your pictures of chip and dale! And the music….ugh I hum it all the time. <3